what's going on

enough about trips and travels for now. I realise i havent been blogging about the my daily life in Germany. Apart from doing everything myself, washing cleaning cooking, life is great over here. i'll probably not get this in Singapore, living with 7 other people, from different countries, under one roof.

housemates of mine: (from left) Audrey, Zsofie, Joe, Patrick, Me, Liyin & Daljoon

there are bound to be some friction here n there but other than that, lots of parties and gatherings which makes u feel kinda warm esp when u're so far away from home. 3 birthday parties so far: liyin, daljoon and jason. lots of laughter, complains about the toilet and heating systems, chopping and cooking.
oops sorry, no photos for jason's birthday, my bad! living in a house with many nationalities certainly means having lots of food ! great great foood! korean, american, indian and hungarian foodie! yum yum. and for jason's birthday, liyin n i specially prepared some singapore food for him, sambal veg and sweet and sour pork, all using premixes =P, simply because we cant get any ingredient from here. thanks to mommy who lovingly sent me sooo many food in a dhl box, oyster sauce, chicken rice paste, dark sauce and even bak kwa, i could cook comfort food from home! okay it isnt as nice as mommy's but, still not bad =P
and these are the people, housemates and friends who made life here so amazing.
2 days ago, we just had a BBQ at our house, 8 of us plus Hoang and George from Czech republic. It was Joe's idea of a bbq, he has been wanting to have one ever since the landlord left the bbq pit in the yard 2 weeks ago. and finally we found charcoal, and ta da! a BBQ prepared by the American's. All kinds of meat, chicken, pork, beef. marinated specially by Joe, with his randomly impromptu made up sauce. it's simply delicious! and i've got down the recipe, next time i'll make it in spore! =Pwe're not anti socials, who only hang out in our own flat, we get out sometimes! turning right from our house, we'll get to Jinmoo's, we frequent his place because, it's so big! and he is living alone with a nice kitchen and washing machine! haha most importantly he has kimchi made by his mom from korea.and further down from Jin's, there is a pizzeria which serves real good pizzas as compared to the one near ours, had dinner with the mexicans once, that was how we got to know the existence of the pizzeria.turning left from our house, and going up a stretch of trecherous hill in which liyin n i failed to conquer with our bikes, we get to Sung ho and Da wid's house. im so jealous when i saw their pad! so much nicer and chic compared to ours, nevertheless, cleaner tooo with amazing view. hmpph. we went up there for dinner, cooked by david and chopped by sungho. haha =P
apart from eating, we do healthy stuff tooo! like jogging(although we only did once =P) and ballroom dancing! haha finally found pple of the same interest, yay! into my 2nd lesson already, waltz, cha cha cha and disco fox. daljoon is such a good dancer and hardworking as well, he is always asking me to practice the steps with him. jin moo and liyin are alright considering they only had 1 lesson.

a saturday @ Mainz

just 30mins away from where i live lies another town, this one, probably not as small and quaint as ours. compared to the our towns we've visited, this one felt more modern with a some old town characteristics hidden in small corners and alleys.

Mainz.

Left home on Saturday morning, with a lunch box so i didnt need to spend a penny for lunch. Took a train from Hattenheim station towards Wiesbaden and changed train to Mainz. The journey was surprisingly a short one. (after going to Munich, which took 7hrs).
While searching for the Mainzer Dom, we came across a weekend market which is pretty interesting. It is somewhat like the wet market we have in Singapore, but it's open air. the weekend market is situated right outside the Dom, surrounded by numerous Cafes and Restaurants. It is much cleaner of course compared to wet markets we have in spore and it's not smelly! they sell everything from vegetables to meat, flowers, wine, cheese and honey.and next to the market lies the Gutenberg Museum. Gutenberg is the name of a guy who invented printing in Europe. we didnt enter the museum but had fun outside the gates! we met a friendly lady who offered us paper and pencil so we could experience ourselves what isit like to do printing in those days. This is what i've got! pretty pretty?? hehez im proud of myself for doing that simply because i cant draw. =Pand then just 5mins walk away, there is the Mainzer Dom which is 1000years old! amazing architecture and interior. really pretty church. so far the prettiest i've seen. and we were lucky so sit in one of the choir sessions. Their vocals are simply amazing! and due to the way the dom was built, it personified their voices and made it comforting to the ears, u feel like the voices are floating in air.

and behind the dom, about a 15mins walk uphill lies another church called St Stephen Church, features many many stain glass panels called Chagall's mysticism of blue light. frankly, i feel it's sooo overrated.
and the rest of the day was spent shopping, shant elaborate much on that. so i'll just leave it as it is! till next trip =) tschuss!

OktoberFest!

The long awaited festival! finally the first weekend of Oktoberfest. i've no idea why it's called oktoberfest when it's held in September! i shall find out sooon.
The festival was held in a really large open space some 10 mins away from the munich station. First, we went for the opening parade, there were lots of people there awaiting the parade to start. it's a display of the breweries that will be present during Oktoberfest.this is where the actual oktoberfest start! initially i tot it was purely for drinking beer but nooooo, they have activities for young and old, basically everyone. we were greeted with rollercoasters, turly rides and stuff and as we walk further we saw tents with large brewery signs on them and of course food stalls selling everything german.we spent first half of the day jsut walking and looking at all the things they have and only headed for the tents in the evening, it was so so packed, all the tents were full so no entry! kinda like zouk. haha so we were waiting outside this tent and the pple at the front of the line gave up queuing coz they waited for 4 hrs and still no entry. sooo we gave up too since we're not in front, god knows when we'll get in! so we trott around and pass tents, there were people puking, drunk laying on the ground, paramedics carrying drunks on stretchers. really bad sight.
according to daljoon, the brewery with the mark HB is the oldest one in Germany. and we managed to get in! how cool is that! well, it was pure luck! we were just wandering about the entrance to that tent, trying to see what's happening inside and the bouncer came behind us and started pushing us in! *woooots!* cool stuff. and look at the no. of people in the tent, it's like a club in there, with live band n drunk people dancing around.sungho ordered 4 beers, 1 for each. i was like shocked. i actually intend to just share 1 cup with liyin or whoever but out of excitement he ordered 4. -.- i wonder how am i gonna finish it! i dont even like beer. kelly n zj knows, because i'm always pouring mine into theirs! 1 litre of beer for stephanie, wow excellent.and after 1 litre of beer this is what happens, sleeping like a baby on the grass patch outside the tent.

Oktoberfest Bundle 2 - Fussen

We took the train which brought us to Munich Hbf in 2hours and went to the korean hostel for rest time. the landlord is so nice for picking us up from the station though it was a mere 5mins walk to his place. and cooked ramien for us. the next morning, we even had yummy korean breakfast. ♥ We're paying 50 Euros/night, which is kinda cheap already considering the fact that it's Oktoberfest. The rooms were great, give it 4/5 stars.
The landlady even brought us around Munich in her car before dropping us at the station again. This time, we're taking the train to Fussen which is about 2hrs away from Munich. Another town in the Bavarian region of German with 2 main tourist attraction. Castles.Castle no. 1 Neuschwanstein Schloss.
Fairytale-like castle built in the 1800 is the inspiration for the present Cinderella Castle in Disneyland. this is the real one ! haah. it is really pretty, the exterior and the interior. too bad ludwig II couldnt enjoy the whole castle. the interior decor is amazing, real beautiful. there is even a cave in the castle to portray one of the scenes in Richard Wagner's play. We're not allowed to take any photos in the castle, which is such a pity.Castle no. 2 Hohenschwangau Castle.
a yellow castle located opposite the Neuschwanstein Schloss isnt as pretty. we didnt go in because according to daljoon, it's not worth the money. soo let's just look at it from the outside.Marienbrücke
the hanging bridge which allows one to look at the Neuschwanstein castle from another angle and also the beautiful landscape which surrounds the castle. it was pretty scary standing on the bridge, as it was wobbly and shook whenever too many pple were on the same spot at one time

Oktoberfest Bundle 1

I left my house at around 9am in the morning for the train station at oestrich winkel. i'm going for a 4 day 3 nights trip, and my backpack is really really heavy though i've got nothing much inside. well it's subjective! =P

walking to the train station with my backpack was really a torture, and it's only the beginning of our trip. it's bad! haha

from oestrich winkel to wiesbaden and then wiesbaden to frankfurt hauptbahnhof. and subsequently a few more transit and we arrive at Rothenburg after 5 hours or so. it's once again a small little town, quite like the one im living in, minus the vineyards. it's more of a touristy town just like Rudesheim. Both having their own unique features.
there isnt much to see in Rothenburg actually, after living in Germany for awhile, everything looks the same after awhile. one attraction in the town is the Torture Museum. haha yeah im a sadist.it wasnt that horrific in the museum as compared to how Daljoon described it. it was boring actually, =X they have all the equipments of torture which was used in the 1700s or so. but there wasnt any images or pictures to enhance the tour experience. waste of money.
and of course, we went to the english garden where we could view the town from another angle. the town is surrounded by thick walls just like those u see in movies, real medieval like.
and also, according to the korean guide book, we have to try this.....

it's a germany version of boonpin's cream puff. they have lots of flavour, i love the one wih nutella in it. yum yum! boonpin, better improve on your puffs! the price is pretty reasonable too, $3 sing dollars for 1 which is bigger than the one u get in spore.and our last stopover for the day is a teddy bear shop located in the cityhall.the bears are so so so cute! i would love to have one but, they are way too expensive for a student like me. a small size bear cost about 120 euros which is 240 sing dollars?! ekkkks! so all i could do was to take pictures with it..boooo! =P

module trouble

havent been blogging as much as i used to back in Singapore, coz im always soooo busy here for some reason that i dont know.

lately, i've been having lots of problems with module mapping and all. it's giving me a headache, real major headache. everytime when im planning to go away for a small trip, something will crop up. and i've got to send emails back to NUS. arghhhh hope this would come to an end and i'll get my proper schedule.

life could be simpler.

but, on the bright side, i have a great friend who nv fails to cheer me up when im down. thank you bfs! for all the silly stuff u say to make me feel better. =) smiley.

Beautiful Rudesheim

Last friday, instead of going for free wine tasting in school, we trot down to beautiful Rudesheim which is just around 40mins away from where we are living in.Rudesheim is another town along the Rhein river and part of the UNESCO world heritage site. It is a major tourist attraction and so things are pretty expensive in that town, food and shopping. Shopping isnt that great because it's tooo touristy. It is also another wine-producing town with picturesque landscape and surroundings.Drosselgasse, one of the street that was on the must visit list on the tourist information guide. it is the most happening part of the town. lots of people in a small narrow alley that was lined with many restaurants and pubs. i was comtemplating if we should just have dinner here since it smells soo good, but the price was tooo goood too. =PNext, i bought a ticket which cost me 11 Euros. It includes 3 rides, the cable car, chair lift and the ferry. Took the cable car up the mountain first, the landscape was awesome! and the cable car is kinda old, so it doesnt have any glass on the side, it's just open air-ed, pretty scary at first.
then we walked for a bit and got to the Niederwalddenkmal Monument, a 10.5m tall monument of a Germania figure. dont ask me what's Germania because i dont know! i just look at the monument. haah =P

and that's the 5 of us who went to Rudesheim. 1 group photo only because boys dont like to take photos. =P

after, a 30mins hike on foot to the car lift, was torturing! ahhhhhh walking up slopes again, gosh it sucks when u're rushing to get the last car lift down the mountain and slopes just nv end. bahhhh! and these are the photos i took on the way there.
and tada! finally reached the carlift station, it's basically just a chair hung onto a cable that brings u down the mountain. if u're afraid of heights, i urge u to hike down the mountain. It is scary even for me when im not afraid of heights. so yeahhh but the view from up above is amazing, one more beautiful picture to share. the rest are on photobucket or on facebook. =)
got down in 20mins and we head to the ferry terminal, on our way there, we chanced upon some pubs with loud music playing in them. i went in and guess what i saw, all of them are old folks! dancing to really hip music! haha i was so surprised. We should learn to party like them tooo, from young to old. i was wondering to myself will i be this happening when im old or will i be stuck at home feeding cats. hmmmmz....the ferry ride took around 30mins along the Rhein river, we passed 3 castles on the way back to Rudesheim. maybe next time we can go there on foot. =P
dinner time! woots* our original plan of having dinner at Drosselgasse did not happen because it was simply too expensive, instead we decided to walk around town to find something less expensive and we saw the Macdonalds sign! it has been soooo long since i had Macs and what's more, they have their local infusion of McRib, something u cant get in singapore because Macdonalds are Halal in Singapore. so no pork. but here, they have! MUST TRY. on the down side, it is freaking expensive toooo omg, 1 meal is 5.45Euros which is $11 singapore dollars! eeeeks! but it is still worth the try haha at least try once la =P